Skipjack

the long version

"In this portrait of a vanishing American tradition, Christopher White paints a picture of the life on a "skipjack"--A vintage wooden sailboat employed for dredging oysters since the nineteenth century - as seen through the eyes of North America's last sailing fishermen. With the boats now sequestered on a mere two islands in the Chesapeake Bay and the nation's greatest estuary - once renowned for its oysters, crabs, and striped bass - diminishing, both seafood and fishing boats are in dangerous decline. Spanning a year in the life of the skipjack fleet, this epic tale follows three unforgettable captains who battle nature and one another to preserve their village communities and way of life. Stubborn survivors of the Age of Sail, they carry on ancient traditions, even as their wind-powered fleet is quickly dwindling." "In Skipjack, White spends a winter season with the fleet to chronicle the captains' lives.^ He works alongside the crew, earning a "share" in the schedule of pay that dates back to the days of whaling ships. Along the way, the fleet encounters storms, shipwrecks, slim catches, and outlaw oystermen while they try to make it through another year. The sailing life calls for backbreaking work, whether it's tending sails, culling oysters, blacksmithing, or bartering with a bushel of shellfish. Above all the clamor is the camaraderie of men who face hardship and danger together. The skippers are also playful. To blow off steam, they tell tall tales and race their skipjacks in and out of port. The men have a fierce affection for their boats." "The three skipjack captains and their families would be content to follow the water for the rest of their lives, but indifferent forces conspire against them: overfishing, modernization, oyster diseases, and pollution.^ Perhaps most insidious is the mismanagement of the Bay by state officials who put sport fishing above seafood and modernization above tradition. In the end, the captains put their personal rivalry aside to take their fight to the state capital." --Book Jacket.